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Lou Reed's estate worth over $20M, executors say

Jennifer Peltz Associated Press

Posted:
07/01/2014 03:19:17 PM CDT

Updated:
07/01/2014 04:45:15 PM CDT

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FILE - This March 24, 2011 file photo shows musician Lou Reed at the Metropolitan Opera's premiere of "Le Comte Ory" in New York. Reed left an estate worth over $20 million, his executors said in a new court filing that provides a glimpse of the value of the musical rights and other assets he acquired during a more than 40-year career. Reed?s executors&mdash;his business manager and accountant&mdash;have tallied $20.3 million worth of copyrights, music-publishing interests and other assets, they said in court papers filed Monday, June 30, 2014, in Manhattan. Reed died Oct. 27, 2013, of complications from a liver transplant. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Lou Reed left an estate worth over $20 million, his executors said in a new court filing that provides a glimpse of the value of the musical rights and other assets he acquired during a more than 40-year career.

Reed's executors — his business manager and accountant — have tallied $20.3 million worth of copyrights, music-publishing interests and other assets, they said in court papers filed Monday in Manhattan. And the sum doesn't include the East Hampton, New York, home Reed bought for about $1.5 million in 2009 or his Manhattan apartment in a building where apartments sell for millions.

Reed's lawyer and one of his executors didn't immediately return calls Tuesday about the filing, first reported by the New York Post. The filing is part of the legal follow-up to the Velvet Underground frontman and "Walk on the Wild Side" singer's will, filed shortly after his Oct. 27 death of complications from a liver transplant.

The 71-year-old Reed, who had no children, bequeathed his wealth to his wife, musician Laurie Anderson, and his sister, with a special $500,000 bequest to his sister to care for their mother.

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With a monotone delivery and an air of watchful detachment, Reed sang about downtown denizens and down and outers in the gritty New York of the 1960s and '70s, sketching a city of damaged characters with a cynicism that never entirely squelched empathy. While "Walk on the Wild Side" was his only Top 20 hit, he and the Velvets are enduring favorites among rock connoisseurs for such songs as "Sweet Jane," ''Heroin," ''Pale Blue Eyes" and "All Tomorrow's Parties."

Besides earning him fans, Reed's music earned him a place among musicians with multimillion-dollar estates. Soul diva Amy Winehouse left more than $6 million in assets when she died in 2011, for instance, while rock guitar icon Jimi Hendrix's estate has been valued at $80 million after his 1970 death; both artists were 27. And Michael Jackson's estate has earned more than $600 million since his death five years ago, at 50.